Toronto, Oct 21: Over a month after accusing Indian hand behind the murder of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, Canadian PM Justin Trudeau is now feeling the heat of India’s counter-actions.
It all started with Canada accusing India and firing one of the top diplomats of the country in September. India was quick to deny the allegation and took a series of countermeasures by firing Canada’s top diplomat in Delhi.
Weeks later, the Ministry of External Affairs of India asked Canada to pull out 41 diplomats to achieve diplomatic parity between the two nations saying that if the same was not done, New Delhi would unilaterally revoke their diplomatic immunity. Following India’s warning, Canada shifted its 41 diplomats to different countries.
Now, PM Trudeau reacted to the whole saga once again yesterday saying that the Indian government’s crackdown on Canadian diplomats was making normal life difficult for millions of people in both countries. He also said that New Delhi is contravening a very basic principle of diplomacy. He added that the Canadian diplomats’ expulsion would hamper travel and trade and pose difficulties for Indians studying in Canada.
“The Government of India decided to unilaterally revoke the diplomatic immunity of 40 Canadian diplomats in India. This is a violation of the Vienna Convention governing diplomacy…It is something that all countries in the world should be worried about and this is putting aside the allegations we made of a serious violation of international law with the alleged killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil that the Indian government could have been involved in…The Indian govt is making it unbelievably difficult for life as usual to continue for millions of people in India and in Canada and they’re doing it by contravening a very basic principle of diplomacy,” said Trudeau.